Beggars Banquet SinglesStormtrooper In Drag - 1981Paul Gardiner

Paul Andrew Gardiner was born on 1st May 1958 in Hayes, Middlesex. In early 1976 he was playing bass in a band called The Lasers when Gary Webb - later known as Gary Numan - auditioned as lead guitarist. The two became friends, and when Numan left the band Gardiner followed him out.

Together with Numan's uncle Jess Lidyard on drums they formed Tubeway Army, signing to Beggars Banquet in October 1977 and releasing their first single, "That's Too Bad", in February 1978. The trio used assumed names at the time, Gardiner's being 'Scarlett'.

Gardiner played bass on the Tubeway Army albums Tubeway Army (1978) and Replicas (1979), and stayed on as bassist when Numan dropped the Tubeway Army name, appearing on the No.1 albums The Pleasure Principle (1979) and Telekon (1980) and touring worldwide between 1979 and 1981.

After Numan's 'retirement' concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981 the backing band went its separate ways, most of them forming Dramatis while Gardiner concentrated on a solo career. His debut solo single, "Stormtrooper In Drag" backed with "Night Talk", reached No.49 in the UK singles chart in 1981. His recording of The Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs" became the first release on Numan's own Numa label in 1984, with his own composition "No Sense" on the B-side. He also played with Dramatis in 1982.

Paul Gardiner struggled with heroin addiction in his final years and died on 18th February 1984, aged 25, in Northolt. Numan wrote "A Child With The Ghost" on Berserker (1984) in his memory, played "Stormtrooper In Drag" on the 1994 tour and "Night Talk" at a charity gig in 2004, and marked the 25th anniversary of Gardiner's death during the 2009 Pleasure Principle tour by performing the demo version of "Complex" with a picture of Gardiner on the backdrop screen.